This is the second edition in English of substantial extracts from the Grundrisse, the 1000-page manuscript in which Marx synthesised, for the only time in his life, the humanism of his youth with his later researches on history and economics. Long buried in the archives of Moscow, it was eventually published there in 1939-41, but only became generally accessible in the 1950s. The manuscript contains accounts of alienation with a wealth of historical detail, profound analyses of the nature of work and, above all, a vision of the fully-automated society in which social wealth. could be devoted to the all-round development of the faculties of each individual. Just as the publication of the 1844 Manuscripts some forty years ago caused a revolution in the interpretation of Marx from the standpoint of his youth, so the Grundrisse necessitates a radical reappraisal of Marx's later work. Each excerpt from the text has a small preface and the whole has an introduction that places the Grundrisse in the development of Marx's thought and vindicates its claim to be Marx's most important work.